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'Tis even handed justice commeuJa the iugredients of the poisoned 
chalice to oiw own Hpa."— Shakspeake. 



NEW YORK : 

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JOHN BROWN, 



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H. CL^Y PJ^TE. 



'Tis even handed justice commends the ingredients of the poisoned 
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I. 
JOHN BROWN AND COMPANY. 



" Every slaveholder has forfeited his right to live." — Williav Lloyd Garsison. 



THE SENIOR PARTNER. 

The members of this firm are " too numerous to mention" in detail, 
but a few may be named. Amos Lawrence and Henry Wilson, of Bos- 
ton, William H. Seward and .Horace Greeley, of New York, Salmon P. 
Chase and Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, not forgetting Fred Douglas, 
of Canada, and James Redpath, the cosmopolite. Algebraically speak- 
ing, these can be regarded as the exponents of those powers, which 
taken together make up the powerful concern of John Brown and 
Company. 

This article is to be devoted to the merits and demerits of the Senior 
partner, who is grown gray in the service of iha concern, as in " sin and 
iniquity." Previous to the Kansas troubles, John Brown was unknown 
as a hero and martyr, although he was not unknown to a peculiar fame. 
Before that he was John Brown no less than he is now, but he had 
never had a chance previous thereto, to carry on his trade with a "li- 
cence of free foot." such as that distracted land furnished him withal. 

James Redpath, the " devoted friend" of the subject under considera. 
tion ; tells us that "for thirty years. Brown secretly cherished the idea 
of being the leader of a servile insurrection ; the American Moses, pre- 
destined by Omnipotence to lead the servile nations in our Southern 
States to freedom." 

He told the writer of this, that he had been all over the South, had 
many warm friends there and was fully posted as to the condition and 
disposition of the people. It is most probable, however, that he was 
known on his southern tour as Bill Smith, Sam Jones, Simon Suggs, or 
anything else rather than John Brown. He has always outlawed him- 



4: John Brown. 

self and traveled tinder an alias. In this he has not been as open and' 
honest as "Jeremiah Anderson," one of his distinguished Lieutenants 
who bit the dust at Harper's Ferry, or it may be the water, which was 
all the same in effect. It is then in Kansas, where the career of our 
hero was begun in open earnest. How did it begin? with murder, cold- 
blooded, fiendish, midnight, home-destroying, heart-breaking, widow- 
making murder. For what reason? you will ask. Because the victims 
were slaveholders. With what justification? That "every slaveholder 
has forfeited his right to live." 

It is asserted that the war was begun on Brown first, by killing one 
of his sons at Easton. That is not so, as we are no doubt correctly 
informed. If the man killed there was named Brown, he was no kin to 
John, as we have every reason to believe ; at least, we hear of it for 
the first time now. It certainly never was talked of heretofore. 

Brown has recited his grievances in my presence, but never men- 
tioned this one. It is doubtless as new to him as to those best acquainted 
with Kansas affairs. The "American Moses" commenced his predes- 
tined leadership by murdering John Doyle and his two sons, Allen Wil. 
kinson and Wm, Sherman. They lived on Pottawatamie Creek, and 
had no fault as quiet citizens, but being in favor of slavery. That was 
their crime, for which they forfeited their lives. One night, in May, 
1856, John Brown, accompanied by his sons and one or two others, 
repaired to the houses of these inoffensive people, tore them from their 
homes, and butchered them. Wilkinson and wife were alone, and she 
was sick. They would not listen to her piteous cries, but dragged forth 
her husband and killed him on the prairie, while she could hear his dy- 
ing groans without being able to go to his assistance. I know these 
things, having seen the testimony of the Doyles that survived, and 
others. They all agreed that it was Brown, " a tall quick-spoken man, 
with grey hair, who said he belonged to the army of the North." The 
"Provisional Government of the United States" was not then established 
— he was only an officer in the " army of the North." 

OLD BROWN A HERO, 

\ 

^ {,_ Some newspapers would make Brown a real hero and a pro- 
digy of personal courage. This would be so, provided all that 
is said of him were true, which it is not by a long shot. At 
the Battle of Black Jack, with numbers at his command, equal to four 
times that of his opponents, he resorted to the trick of taking prisoners 



John Brown. 5 

^nder a flag of truce, aud exposing their livo3 to save his, instead of 
fighting for a victory that might have made him a hero ia truth. With 
the same object, he first took prisoners to shield him at Harper's Ferry. 
At the battle of Ossawatamie, according to the testimony of Mr. S. 
It. Riddle, of Raleigh, N. C, " he took a horse aud fled precipitately, 
leaving his misguided followers to take care of themselves as best they 
<50uld." As regards this battle, he has tried to magnify himself into a 
hero by saying he killed 60 or 70 pro-slavery men, aud lost none of his 
— whereas, not one of the former was killed, while twenty-five or thirty 
of the latter fell. So says Mr. Riddle, and so I have heard numbers 
say, including Gren. Reid himself, who commanuedthe conquering troops. 
At this battle his oldest son was killed ; his house had been burned ; 
but it was not until after the Pottawatamie Creek murders. After the 
peace in Kansas, in September, 1856, made by Gov. Geary, Brown and 
his army of the North took to horse stealing and negro thieving. He 
was afraid of being arrested, and at last fled with his plunder to, aud re- 
mained some time, in Canada. He afterwards returned and ran off a lot 
of negroes to Canada, and the Governor of Missouri offered a large re- 
ward for his apprehension. This is what he meant at Harper's Ferry 
by saying $3,500 was on his head. The Cleveland Democrat says : 

*'A bolder or a worse man than that same Ossawatomie Brown the 
world never knew. His single virtue, ' linked with a thousand crimes,' 
was bull-dog courage. Fanatic to the highest degree— a pupil in poli- 
tics of the Giddings school — he has been taught to believe that the kill- 
ing of a slaveholder was an act which God approves. When in this city 
last spring, in his lectures, he told of his stealing negroes and running 
them off to Canada — of his stealing horses, which he then had with him 
for sale — of his shooting down slaveholders, and of other acts equally 
atrocious. 'And now,' said Brown, 'I wish to know if the people of 
Cleveland approve of what I have done. Those who approve of my 
acts will say 'aye,' and more than one-half of his audience, composed 
of abolitionists, shouted 'aye,' whilst not a single 'nay' was uttered by 
any one present." 

This picture of Brown is very correct, I am sorry that Old Brown 
succeedei in pulling the wool over Gov. Wise's eyes. The Governor, 
in his speech on returning to Richmond, spoke of his courage, his hu- 
manity, truthfulness, simple ingenuousness. (Gov. W. is so honest 
himi-elf that he would even give Old Brown credit for honesty.) 

General Washington was a brave man, and so is Brown. But there 
ia difference in their courage. Brown has the " courage'' to do wrong, 



6 John Brown. 

to deceive, to steal, to murder; Gen. Washington did not have the 
courage to do these things. He had the courage to do right ; J3rown has 
not the courage to do right — "His single virtue, linked with a thousand 
crimes, is bull-dog courage" — courage after sinning and being caught, 
to face an unavoidable death for the sin. But he took care, to hold host- 
ages for self-protection; in fact, he was never yet k?iown to fight fairly. 

On this point Mr. Riddle says : " Killing armed, determined and res- 
olute men, was certainly not the occupation of Ossawatomie Brown and 
his marauders, but their vocation in Kansas was making attacks on de- 
fenceless men who were quiet and good citizens, and taking them from 
their families, murdering them, insulting women and burning houses. 
Such was the course of this very ' brave' man Brown, in Kansas." 

Brown was humane to his prisoners, because it was policy. Had he 
been otherwise, no power could have protected his life when captured, 
and he knew it. Who believes there is a spark of true humanity in the 
midnight murderer? 

Where is the truthfulness and disingenuousness of the man who 
would make himself a hero, by lying and stealing, who traveled over 
the country under assumed names, who transacted rascality under the 
style and firm of J. Smith & Sons, whose life " for thirty years," it is 
admitted, has been a "secret" fraud, and whose philanthropy is shown to 
have been a speculation in cotton — in the labor of the very beings he 
pretends to love so well? Col. Forbes says : " John Brown, had he been 
truthful, might have been useful in some capacitif — showing what an 
associate thinks of his truth — and complained to Sanborn, of Boston, 
because he had employed in his Harper's Ferry movement a thief who 
had not only stolen from Missouri, but from Brown himself ; employed 
out of Brown's " admiration for the desperate feat" of stealing horses 
and robbing houses. 

And yet Brown is honest, truthful, disingenuous and all that. Of" 
course he is, because "Brutus was an honorable man." 



Jolm Brown. 



II 

JOHN BROWN AND COMPANY. 



"The Constitution of the United States is a covenant with deatli, and an agreement 
with hell." — Lloyd Garrison. 



REDPATH, COOK AND KAGI. 

In his "[card," fulminated against Col. Hugh Forbes, Horace Greeley 
states that he does "not believe tabt John Brown ever intentionally deceived 
Forbes or any body else." It is nothing new for Greeley to make a state- 
ment wide of the truth, when a falsehood difficult of detection will do as 
well ; but it goes decisively against the grain to think that he should 
have done it in this case, when all the world knows that Brown has just 
been detected in and convicted of the most stupendous crimes which he 
was enabled to commit by the most stupendous deceptions. He operated 
nnder an assumed name : Did Brown " deceive" anybody when he made 
all Harper's Ferry believe that his name was John Smith ? Did he 
" deceive" anybody when he pretended to be a miner ? Did he " de- 
ceive " anybody when he wrote to J. H. Kagi, as J. Henrie ? He 
"deceived" nobody of course, when he took his opponent, at the Battle 
of Black Jack, prisoner under a flag of truce ! 1 repeat that it is hard 
to consider that Greeley, who is as wise as a serpent (and^as harmless as 
a dove) usually, would have been so soft as to make such a declaration, 
as that Brown never intentiojially deceived anybody ? But as the Con- 
stitution is a " covenant with death and an agreement with hell," decep- 
tion is not deception when used to overthrow that Constitution ; " the 
end justifies the means;" " There is no law for slavery ;" " Virginia has 
no law ;" and these sayings of fanatics being taken for axioms, it become 
clear that Brown never intentionally deceived anyone — no r^ever I 

I wager double the amount subscribed to stock in the " Provisional 
Government" by Giddings, that it turns out in the end that not only did 



8 John Brown. 

old Brown deceive Hugh Forbes Esq., but also Gerrit Smith aud the 
rest, together with James Redpath, John E. Cook and J. H. Kagi. 



REDPATH. 

J. Redpath is now a regular correspondent of the New York Tribune- 
What else he does, deponent saith not. Let the tree be judged by its 
fruits. * * J. R. is an Englishman. Had he been named Jas. Red- 
mouth, or John Whiteliver, it would have been more appropriate, albeit 
his path of life would be red with blood, provided he had some one to 
practice for him what he professes. Always blood-thirsty on paper, he 
takes great care never to drink anything sanguinary himself, unless it is 
beef's blood, for which he has a remarkable affinity. "The latter end of a 
fray and the beginning of a feast, suits a dull fighter and a keea guest." 
Major Redpath, (for he is known as a person of that rank, in Kansas,) 
has not been in *' Hamerica " long. We first hear of him as assistant edi- 
tor of a Southern paper, from which he was dismissed on account of his 
hot-headed pro-slaveryism — being too ultra an advocate of African slavery 
for a Southern Democratic paper. After trying his hand on another South- 
ern paper, and for aught we know being dismissed therefrom, also, we 
next hear of him as an attache of the St. Louis Democrat, the great 
abolition paper of Missouri. He went to Kansas as its correspondent, 
whence he wrote an ocean of anti-slavery twaddle, as hot-headed against 
slavery as his former efforts had been for it. In this capacity, he distin- 
guished himself. As a gentleman, he was known as a consummate coward, 
and as a correspondent, the most outrageous, intolerable, unheard of, 
never-to-be-forgotten liar out of England. He was rescued one day near 
the Shawnee Mission from a fence corner, in which he was beleaguered 
by a worthless fellow more cowardly than himself. It was he who killed 
Rev. Martin White, who died pierced with seven bullets — paper bullets 
as it turned out, for he lives now, (if he isn't dead,) having escaped from 
the clutches of old Brown, and the newspaper assassinations of Major 
Redpath. (He, Martin White, was a free soiler, but too honest to follow 
Brown). The Major says he went to the South on purpose to learn some- 
thing bad about slavery, and that he was and is for war upon it — he's' 
"agin" the Constitution and the Union — that " covenant with death and 
agreement with hell." Yet while in the South, for bread and butter he 
wrote good things about slavery, and 1 suppose that Mr. Greeley would 
saj, that Jas. Redpath " never intentionally deceived anyone." In 
stature, J. R. is about five feet two. In speed, he is about 2,40 from 



John Brovm. 9' 

a fight. In mental calibre, his bigness is beyond all human computation. 
In looks, he can beat the d — 1. 

COOK, 

John E. Cook is a good shotut a mark. Notwithstanding his white 
liver, he is somewhat deserving ofoonTiH!S"eration. When the Free State 
Hotel was destroyed at Lawrence, on the 22d May, 1856, the town was 
deserted by most of the inhabitants when the pro-slavery army entered 
it. The free soilers took a pride in concealing their arms, and although 
they had a large quantity but few were found. Cook, not getting away 
as fast as some, was arrested. He appealed to me, a Captain for protec- 
tion, having a bundle in his arms apparently a child wrapped in a blanket. 
I protected him, on his assertion that he was a harmless school teacher. 
I met him afterwards under peculiar circumstances, when he was inclined 
to repay me for my kindness. But he laughed at me for having been 
" fooled " by him. It appears that the bundle in his arms at Lawrence, 
was a Sharp's rifle, which he was anxious to preserve from the Border 
Ruffians ; and he resorted to the ruse of making believe it was his baby. 
He was then unmarried, had no family and was much of a ladies man. 
The rifle no doubt was the same, used by him at Harper's Ferry, of which 
notice has been made in the papers. It was a very fine piece, of small 
bore, with adjustable sight, and he said it cost eighty dollars. Cook was 
doubtless easily led away, but his crime was particularly great in acting 
the spy so long at Harper's Ferry. He is a man of small stature, pale 
face, and some intelligence "with a romantic disposition." 

KAQI OR KAOEr. 

J. Ht Kagi hailed from " Topekoe," in Kansas. He distinguished 
himself by the following : Corresponding with the New York Tribune, 
he said something derogatory to the character of Judge Rush Elmore, 
now Chief Justice of Kansas. The Judge happening to meet Kagi at 
Tecumseh, fell afoul of him with a cane, and larrupped him pretty well. 
Kagi retreated rapidly, but, in a moment when the Judge was ofi" his guard, 
his retreating antagonist shot him in the back. Kagi, after that, figured 
in the " Topeka Government," and, no doubt, co-operated with Brown 
in his stealing of horses and negroes — in his murders and ravages gener- 
ally. In the Provisional Government he held a high place — a place no 
less than that of Secretary of War, which, it must be acknowledged, was 
very important. Kagi had some sprightliness, and wrote readible let- 



10 John Brown. 

ters. But fanaticism crrried him away ; and that, assisted by old Brown, 
brought him, as it did others, to a premature and dishonorable grave ; 
and as it will many others of his kind, if the disciples of Wen- 
dell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, and Wm. H. Seward, dare to practice what 
they profess, to do and die as did the sainted John Brown, the martyr, 
whose blood, it is declared, will be the seed of the church. If his blood 
should sprout and grow it will produce a marvellous crop of rascality, 
bigotry, and deceptive heresies. The harvest, like the seed-time, will be 
one of dismal woes and barren calamities. * * "Tis even-handed jus- 
tice commends the ingredients of the poisoned chalice to our own lips." 
Kagi, like Macbeth and his lady, has learned this. Without the aid of 
Executive clemency. Cook will soon do likewise. Let Redpath beware I 
The poisoned cup he has so often administered to his miserable vic- 
tims, and would have administered to others, is now commended to the 
lips of John Brown. Soon he will drain it to the dregs ;"and let James 
Redpath take a lesson of wisdom from the occurence, repair to " Hing- 
land," and leave this country for this country's good and his own edifica- 
tion. 

*' Qwe^n Dms vult perdere, prius dementat.'" ^ 



John Brown. 11 



III. 

JOHN BROWN AND COMPANY. 



" Our emancipation from the slave power will come — whether in peace or in blood I 
know not : but whether in peace or in blood, let it come." — Sentiment of J. Q. Adams 

ADOPTED BY J. R. GiDDINGS. 



HORACE GREELEY AND THE BLACK DOUGLASS. 

The two subjects of this chapter are very prominent members of the 
firm, but whether they are most useful as military or financial partners, 
it is hard to tell. They are both down on the " slave power ;" both are 
in favor of emancipation from it, " and want it to come whether in 
peace or in blood." Tn fact, they are remarkably alike in all else but 
color. [ doubt not, however, their livers are equally white. 

Horace Greeley edits Greeley's paper, and Fred. Douglass edits his 
paper. Horace believes in Greeley, and Fred, believes in Douglass. 
That is to say, the former is a Horace Greeley man, and the latter a 
Frederick Douglass man. They both live on the wages of anti-slavery, 
and each has an abiding horror of the peculiar institution — Douglass 
because he has felt the slave-driver's lash, and Greeley because he has 
experienced the slave-owner's cane. 

" A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind." 

They sympathixe with old Brown and applaud his motives ; and they 
deserve hanging just as much as the old fanatic hijnself. Nay, more, 
because they cowardly skulk, while he faces the music with a reckless- 
ness of consequences characteristic of the man whose life has been a 
series of daring criminalities. Col. Forbes relates that when he was 
contemplating his visit to Kansas, Greeley told him confidentially to 
keep him posted up, for when the fight begun, he wanted to be there ! 
Fortunately, for his vegetarian constitution, the fighting was all over. 



12 John Brown. 

If he was anxious to " pitch in," why wasa't Horace on hand in 1856 ? 
If he was spoiling for a fray, why didn't Greeley fight Senator Kusk, 
when that brave Texan belabored him in Pennsylvania avenue ? 

The Hon. Mr. Greeley recently visited Kansas and Utah, but happily 
for him, the Kansas war was ended and the Utah emeute had been 
quelled. Valiant Horace ! 

The Black Douglass is no less careful of his physical organization. 
He sympathizes with John Brown ; urges him on ; even promises to be 
with him ; but when the time comes to show his pluck, fulfill his word, 
and " emancipate himself from the slave power in peace or in blood," he 
takes unto himself wings and flies away ; "in short," as Mr. Micawber 
would say, he finds it important to visit the province of Canada, whence 
he writes that he does not consider it healthy about Rochester, New 
York, and expresses a decided aversion to being " bagged " by Governor 
Wise. Considerate Frederick ! 

If then, Messrs. Greeley and Douglass were as poor partners in a 
financial as they are in a military point of view, it is apparent that the 
firm has not much to gain by their connection with it. They should 
hereafter be considered at the farthest, as mere drummers, and have no 
voice in the management of the most vital' interests of the concern. 
Pursuant it may be to this arrangement, the Black Douglass is about to 
visit Europe, and we suggest that his white confrere be immediately 
dispatched to Africa. 

Mr. Greeley now says of Forbes, whom he gave $20.00 towards his 
Kansas outfit, that he was no account but to beg for money, and never 
did the cause any good from the first. Mr. Black Douglass says that 
Cook is a liar and a coward; that he falsely charges Am with cowar- 
dice, while the fact is. Cook is cowardly himself, having " deserted his 
brave old Commander." It is always thus ; you may ever set a rogue 
to catch a rogue, and it is as true to-day as it was in olden time, that 
" when thieves fall out, the devil's about." 

in this connection, and in view of the Executive pardon which is 
asked for the " brave old veteran," we propose briefly to look into 

THE ANTECEDENTS OF JOHN BROWN. 

I..IL.^\\, will be a gratification to the friends of Horace and Frederick for 
'-^^ them to know all about him whose champion they are, and whoso advo- 
cates they have been. We will first look at the old hero as a Kentucky 
jail-bird. The Evansville (Indiana) Enquirer informs us that John 



I 



John Brown. 13 

Brown passed two years in Fraukfort at hard, labor, "having been con- 
cerned in running off slaves, and was caught in the act." After hig 
term was out, " he went North, avowed himself a martyr to the anti- 
slavery cause, and became the idol of the Republicans." It seems that 
old Brown made his headquarters at Henderson, Kentucky, pretending 
to be a " pedlar," instead of a «' miner," as at Harper's Ferry. This 
was about 1852 or '53. The E?iquirer adds : " Old ' Pedlar ' Brown, 
on^^one of his excursions, stayed over night at a house about six miles 
from Evansville, where the editor of this paper happened also to be a 
guest. The subject of slavery was discussed between them, and in the 
conversation, Brown stated he had lived in Portage county, Ohio. This, 
also, it seems, was formerly the home of the veritable old ' Ossawa- 
tomie.' He also said he had a family of sons whom he had dedicated 
to eternal hostilty to slavery. Old ' Ossawatomie ' lost two sons at 
Harper's Ferry, carrying out their eternal hostility." And^lost them, 
the editor might have added, in carrying out the country's "emancipa- 
tion from the slave power in blood." 

The Lawrence (Kansas) Herald of Freedom, has the following : " The 
first time the people of Kansas heard of old John Brown, was in the 
summer of 1855. A meeting of ultra abolitionists was held at Caze- 
novia, New York, if we recollect rightly. While in session. Brown, 
who is a native of Essex county. New York, appeared in that conven- 
tion and made a very fiery speech, during which he said he had four 
sons in Kansas, and he had three others who were desirous of going 
there to aid in fighting the battles of freedom. He could not consent 
to go unless he could go arnied, and he would like to arm all his sons, but 
was not able to do so. Funds were contributed on the spot, principally 
by Gerrit Smith." 

The Penitentiary term of Old Bi<?^n must have expired about the 
spring of 1855. The Herald of Freedom further says: " Old John 
Brown singled out, with himself, seven men. These he marched to a 
point eight miles above the mouth of Potawatamie creek, and called 
from their beds at their several residences at the hour of midnight, on 
the 24th of May, 1856, Allen Wilkinson, William Sherman, William 
P. Doyle, William Doyle and Drury Doyle. All were found the next 
morning by the roadside or in the highway, some with a gash in their 
heads and sides, and their throats cut; others with their skulls split 
open in two places, with holes in their breasts, and hands cut off; and 
others had holes through their breasts, with their fingers cut off. No 
man in Kansas has pretended to deny that Old John Brown led that 



14 John Brown. 

foray, which massacreed those men. Up to that period not a hair of 
Old John Brown^s head, or that of any of his sons, had been injured 
by the pro-slavery party. ^' Let it be understood that this is not pro- 
slaver j testimony, it is Black Republican. It is not Captain Pate that 
speaks, but Geo. W. Brown, who has as much to complain of the pro- 
slavery party as any one, if not more . He himself was long time a 
prisoner in camp, and had his printing office destroyed on May 2l8t, 
1856. 

GOVERNOR WISE AND OLD BROWN. 

I will not close this without doing full justice to Governor Wise, if 
I have not already done it. The Governor spoke of Brown from 
impulse, and in the absence of facts it was impossible for him to be 
aware of. On reading his speech at Bichmond, after returning from 
Harper's Ferry, the writer of this addressed a letter to the Governor, 
putting him in possession of certain facts, and in a friendly manner 
asking if he had not estimated Old Brown's character too highly 1 He 
replied : " Doubtless you are a better judge, far, than I am, of Brown. 
You saw him in his every day light, I in his position as a wounded 
prisoner ; you for a close look at him, I cursorily. I gave only my first 
and hasty impressions of him. At all events, I thank you for 
yours," &c. 

Henry A. Wise is one of those honest persons, of great heart, who 
are ever ready to " render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
unto God the things that are God's." In this case we might more ap- 
propriately say, he was ready " to give th. devil his due," as he under- 
stood it ; but we venture to say *.hat, had the Governor been possessed 
of all the facts of Brown's life, Ue would have been the last of men to 
give Pottawatamie Creek Brown, credit for true bravery. If a midnight 
assassin can be brave, then is Jo. a Brown a brave man. 

Brown invoked war to " emancipate the country from the slave 
power." Greely and Black Douglass said " let it come ;" but when it 
came, Douglass went, and Greely was not ready to receive it. 



John Brown. 



IV. 

JOHN BROWN AND COMPANY. 



" These light afflictions, which endure for the moment, shall work out for me a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." — Jou^f Brown to the QuaeerkssofR. 1. 



THE PIETY OF JOHN BROVTN. 

Old Brown is one for whom it was said; he " stole the livery of 
Heaven to serve the devil ia." It it was ever done, he did it. No one 
can read his cant about the " sword of Grideon," the " poor that cry and 
have no help," his " wielding the sword of the spirit on the right and 
on the left," and remaining "joyful in all tribulations," without being 
disgusted, and at the same time convinced of his hypocritical scoun- 
drelism. 

No cause, in itself good, can be advanced by deception, and there is 
no end sufficiently important in this world to be justified in being com- 
passed by crime. The Bible teaches us to let our light so shine that 
others, seeing our good works, may be benefited thereby ; and no where 
does it inculcate the principle of deceit ; but, on the reverse, it ana- 
thematizes, above all others, such workers of iniquity aa hypocrites. 
One is a hypocrite^ when he pretends to be what he is not, and that is 
John Brown to a T. Pretending to be a pedlar, he turns out to be a 
Kentucky negro thief. Affecting to be a philanthropist, he is proven 
to be a speculator in cotton. Essayiog to befriend the negro, he dis- 
covers himself the worst enemy the black man ever had. 

Being out of means and out of employment, Brown started for 
Kansas, and went there as a professional fighter and a compensated free- 
booter. How well he acted his part, Pottawatamie Creek witnessed, 
Ossawatomie and Black Jack tell, and numbers of widowed and plan- 



16 John Brown. 

dered households can testify. When the troublous times in Kansas 
were over, and Brown became an outlawed felon by his own acts, 
Othello's occupation was gone. He must have something to do; the 
hero of a hundred thefts and a million lies had to live. Therefore he 
set himself to work, and the result of his labors was the Harper's 
Ferry failure. Porte Crayon quite aptly illustrates it by a fable of 
jEsop : "A certain harper, having pleased the sots in an ale-house with 
his music, was so conceited as to go upon the stage and play for the 
great public. Here he failed ignominiously, and was hissed." Brown's 
performances '• with the sword of Gideon " in Kansas, made him so 
conceited that he thought he could perform with equal tdat in Virginia. 
'* Here he ignominiously failed and was hissed " oflF the stage of action, 
to appear positively for the last time on the second of December 1359. 
He made the nigger a hobby-horse, on which to ride to fortune and 
favor with the great Moguls of Abolition, not truly caring whether 
CuflFee got any good of it or not. He discovers at last that the " wages 
of sin is death." But how cunningly does the old sinner evade this 
confession ! Hear him : "I think God put a sword in my hand, and 
there continued it so long as He saw best, and the n kindly took it from 
me." This might properly be called a polite way of acknowledging 
merited damnation. 

In Brown's speech before sentence of death, he said it was not his 
intention to make war and kill, but to carry off negroes as he did in 
Missouri, " without snapping a. gun." The articles of his Provisional 
Government, under which he is commander-in-chief of the army, give 
the lie to this statement. " I do not feel consciousness of guilt in 
taking i(p arms," says he to his Quaker friend " E. B. of R. I.," 
acknowledging that he went to war, and thus convicting himself of 
falsehood. Mr. Charles Blair, who made Brown's pikes, publishes a 
card, showing that he was deceived by the old reprobate in the object he 
had in view by their manufacture. When Mr. B. suggested that they 
" could be of no use in Kayisas,^' Brown made an evasive reply, and said 
" they might be of some use." Mr B. says : 

"In July I received a letter from Old Brown, directing me to for- 
ward the 'freight,' when finished, to J. Smith & Sons, Chambersburg, 
Pa. Subsequently I received the following letter : 

Chambeesburg, Pa., Aug. 24, 1859. 
"Chab. Blair, Esq., Dear Sir ;— Some time in July last a Mr. 
Brown, who said he was dealing with you, made arrangements with us 
to receive and forward some freight he expected from you. 



John, Brown. 17 

"Will you please eay to us by return mail if you have sent any part 
of it forward, and if not, when you think you can do 80. 

"Respectfully yours, 

J. SMITH & SONS," 

"The words 'receive and forward' were underscored in the original. 
The letter was in an entirely different hanlwriting, and I honestly sup- 
posed was from a bona fide firm doing business in Chatnbersburg. My 
reply to that letter has also been published. Within a few days the 
pikes were sent as ordered, and their receipt was acknowledged by J. 
Smith & Sons, in a letter dated September 15." 

The intelligent reader need not be informed that "J. Smith & Sons" 
was another name for J. Brown & Sons. Possibly Old Brown was 
wielding "the sword of the spirit" when he caused "J. Henrie Kagi," 
or J. Henry Somebody else, to forge the name of J. Smith & Sons, 
thereby deceiving a Black Republican friend. But, fortunately, he did 
not find his sword "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds" when 
he came to use it at Harper's Ferry. 

Much stress has been laid upon Brown's truthfulness. I aver that if 
hell holds a greater liar than ho, it is a better place than it has credit 
for. Ever since his career in Kansas commenced, his chief stock in 
trade has been lies to cover up his uncounted crimes, and "put money 
in his purso." Hrown hires a fellow, one of his cat-throat band, to 
"confess" to Redpath that he did the work on Pottawatomie Creek. 
Re'lpath gives the confession circulation, and Brown swears to it, know- 
ing it to be a falsehood as black as the heart that conceived it. 

This is taken from Mr. Blair's Goilinsville card : 

"In the latter part of February or the eirly part of March, 1857, 
*01d Brown,' as he is familiarly called, came to this town to visit his 
relatives, (most of whom, I learn, reside here^ and, by invitation, al- 
dressed the inhabitants at a public meeting. 

"At the close of the meeting, or on the following day, he exhibited 
some weapons which he claimed to have takea from Capt. H. 0. Pate, 
at the battle of Black Jack. 

"Among others was a bowie knife, or dirk, having a blade about 
eight inches long. Brown remarked that such an instrument, fixed to 
the end of a pole about six feet lono;, wouid be a capital weapon to place 
in the hands of tho settlers in Kansas, to keep in their cabins to defend 



18 John Brown. 

theraseives aga.nst any attack by 'Border Ruffians or wild beasts,' and' 
asked me what it would be worth to make a thousand." 

When Captain Pate and his company were released from Brown's 
treacherous clutches, Colonel Sumner ordered Brown to give up all the 
weapons and other accoutrements, and Brown wpon his honor said he had 
returned everything that he knew of. Capt. P. does not think anything 
was kept back but the horse of one of his men, and his own bowie 
knife, doubtless the very one exhibited to Mr. Blair at Collinsvillc. 
This knife was appropriated by Fred. Brown, who was afterwards killed 
by ' Poor Martin White" at the battle of Ossawatomie, and he said 
uj)on his word of honor that he had hid it to prevent its being taken by 
force, and could not find it. The statement bore a lie on its face, and 
these are only instances of the piety of John Brown, which he practiced 
himself and taught his children. He exhibited not only weapons, but a 
great many other things he pretended to have taken at Black Jack, but 
which were, in fact, st >len from some inoffensive settler. These things 
became curiosities ; they drew crowds to his lectures, and his lectures 
paid. His lies put money in his pocket ; they added eclat to profit. 

Col. Forbes in a letter to Dr. Howe of Boston, gave his reason why 
Brown should be stopped in his ii:ad career, and the arms of the Aid So. 
ciety should be taken from him : Among others, was this : 

" Fourth. Because some of the hands engaged by him are highly ob- 
jectionable ; for example, when Brown was in the first Kansas troubles, 
he was", by his own men, robbed of horses, &c. Now, a young man 
whom he asserted had helped to rob him has been re-engaged, for the 
reason that he did an audacious act, going with three others to Missouri, 
to the house of another John Brown, whence they took money and 
horses; after the troubles in Kansas were over, and B. had left; thence 
they went to another house and did in the like manner, and though pur- 
sued, they got away with the booty. Reprisals and foraging for the 
common stock are justifiable in war, when ordered by the directing pow- 
er, but such things, if permitted to be done by individuals, for private 
gain, constitute brigandage; the robbery of comrade < is, however, the 
worst of all pillage. I remonstrated against the engagement of that per- 
son, but B. told me he had already done it ; his admiration for the desper- 
ate feat effaced every other feeling." 

Such was the character of one of Brown s men. But look at them 
all, both the dead and the living, and a score of lower, meaner, more 
debased "iousey, chrietless, (xod- forsaken" devils never lived, Stevens 



John Brown. 19 

was a deserter from the U. S, army, the least that could be said of Lim. 
Edwin Coppic " always enjoyed the reputation of a reckless, dare -devil 
fellow, possesing much more physical fortitude than principle." He had 
a "depraved and vicious nature," and was a regular negro-thief. That 
is the least that can be said of him. Albert Hazlet was a Pennsyl- 
vania defaulter and a New York horse-thief, saving his bacon in the lat- 
ter place, '• by turning State's-evidence and giving testimony against his 
confederates." Thus we might go on from "Jeremiah Anderson" down 
to "J. Henrie Kagi," and up to old Brown, and we would find the whole 
crew to be unmitigated scoundrels and practical brigands. 

What a comment on the piety of this man, that every employee was 
either a thief, a murderer, or a notorious vagabond ! Well might he ex- 
claim, if there be any salvation for so mortal a sinner, however penitent, 
that his detection and conviction would " but work for him a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 

Some one has written a few admirable verses on " old John Brown," 
of which the following is the first : 

"Old John Brown, a man of renown, 

Whose crimes are an unwritten story, 

Has carved his name on the pillar of fame, 

And covered his/whtre with glory." 

The glory of the gallows ; the renown of meeting the deserved fate 
of a convicted traitor; the honor of atoning for a life "black as night" 
in a death " terrible as hell." 



so John Brown. 



V. 



JOHN BROWN AND COMPANY. 



" Jolin Brown has figured as a hero ia Kansaa. The time will come when history 
will be ventilated, and instead of a hero he will stand before the country in hia true 
character." — Georgk W. Brown, a Kansas Rkpubucan. 



/ 



JOHN BEOWN AS A HERO. 



/ Cicero was a hero. Eloquent, a man of genius and high moral in- 

stincts, he spoke and wrote and used his influence against conspirators, 
and all whom he considered enemies to his country's peace. Loved by 
the people, he was yet banished their presence ; but the love they boro 
him restored Cicero to the light and liberty of his adopted home. 

Proconsul of Cecilia, he gave great satisfaction by the impartiality of 
his administration. A partisan with Pompey in his civil war with Cae- 
sar, he proved himself to be a ready soldier. A leader of the ISenate, 
by his famous philippics against Anthony, he made himself "the idol 
of the people;" but they drew upon him the bale of Anthony's malice, 
and he ha/1 to answer for them with his head, under the second triumvi- 
rate. " His head and hands were conveyed to Rome and, by the orders 
of Anthony, nailed to the Rostra." No sane man will deny that Marcus 
Tullius Cicero was a hero. His genius, his services to hia country, his 
banishment and ignominious execution, made him a martyred hero, as 
distinguished as ever died on the block. 

It was no morbid sentimentality that gave this illustrious Roman the 
character of heroism in history. When Octavius gave him up, and 
Cicero found he must die, ho " stretched forward his head to the execu- 
tioners, and called upon them to strike," He had committed no crime, 
and could afford to defy the hatchet and its minions. In him, this was 
heroism indeed. But what must be the Btate of that society which can 



John Brown. 21 

throw ai'ound John Bro'.vn the luaotle of a hero ? He has not a siosle 
attribute of heroism, unless the spirit which made Benedict Arnold a 
traitor, and the deeds which constituted John A. Murel a murderer and 
counterfeiter, are parts of heroism. The Baltimore Exchange, which is 
one of the ablest papers in the country, makes the following sensible 
remarks : 

" It is just to add, however, that various circumstances, besides 
those which we enumerated, have helped to raise Brown to the position 
of hero in the eyes of the people of the North — and prominent among 
these are the false and exaggerated views of Brown's character and pur- 
poses which have been originated and disseminated at the South. Cou- 
pled with sympathy with the treason, we everywhere find, at the North, 
admiratija for the traitor. He is the " brave oil man" — the " noble 
old man" — the " great," and even the " God-like" man. A sculptor 
has travelled all the way from Boston to Charleston to take a cast of his 
features, for the purpose of perpetuating them in marble. The second 
day of December — the day on which Brown is sentenced to be hung — is 
to be kept as a day of fasting and humiliation by thousands of people. 
In fine, Brown is destined to receive, and already receive , the honors 
which are due only to the most exalted heroism and the purest patriot- 
ism. For this. Southern men have themselves, in a great measure, to 
thank. They have magnified unduly the importance of Brown, and 
particularly his fortitude and courage." r 

The people do not seem to know that " there is a courage which, in 
the face of death, takes possession of the meanest and weakest natures — i 
the courage of despair." The tiuth is, ihAti\ie courage of despair is the/ 
only kind which Brown ever had, except it is what we have heretofore 
defined to be the " courage to do wrong, to cheat, to kill, and to steal.*' 

The Exthange further says : 

•' How idle, then, to talk about Old Brown's courage, as if there had 
never been men before him — or as if many a poor wretch, condemned to 
death for sheep-stealing or shop-lifting, has not shown as much forti- 
tude as he ! Yet it is this quality which has contributed so largely to 
elevate Brown to the position of a hero at the North, and which has 
won the admiration of Gov. Wise. What other claims to respect or 
sympathy Old Brown possesses, we are at a loss to imagine. Had he 
killed the unarmed gentlemen who were prisoners in his hands, he 
would not have been more the fiend he proved himself to be when he 
sought to let loose, upon the homes and fields of Maryland and Virginia, 




22 John Brown. 

and the peaceful community in which he had dwelt without harm or mo- 
lestation, the horrors of murder, rape and arson, and all the barbarous 
consequences of a servile war. Nor is there any reason for supposing 
that Old Brown spared his prisoners from any other motives than those 
of policy--while there is ground for believing that this very a3t of mer- 
cy is one of the mistakes which he regrets that he committed." 

1 have quoted thus largely from the Exchange, no less because its re- 
marks are weighty, than because I desire to show that there are others 
who think as 1 do, and who arc able to express their thoughts clearly 
and with signal ability. 

I am pleased to observe that the llichmond Enquirer id altering its 
position as to Brown's character : I also quote from the Enquirer: 

" It is established, beyond doubt, that since his trial Brown has pre- 
varicated about a matter concerning which he could not have committed 
or innocently given rise to any mistake. Before the committing magis- 
trate, when Gov. Wise was reciting Brown's previous avowals, the Grov- 
ernor described Brown as avowing that the negroes sent off under 
Cook's escort were to be "run off." He was interrupttd by Brown 
himself, who declared the Governor to be mistaken in that part of the 
statement. Brown ind ignantly denied that he intended to run off the 
negroes ; asserted that they were only sent away to remove the arms 
left in the mountains, to prevent them from falling into the hands of 
the civil authorities ; that the negroes were to return, armed, to fight 
for their own freedom. This was qualified only by the further assertion, 
that no injury was intended against such slave-holders as should peace- 
ably submit to the emancipation of their slaves. No declaration of ab- 
solute intention to incite insurrection could be more explicit or unmis- 
takeable. 

" Now compare this with Brown's late declaration : " I never did in- 
tend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to incite 
slaves to rebeUio7i, or to make i)isurrection.'^ These stubborn ficts go 
strongly to disprove the character for honesty which has been so fre- 
quently claimed for and conceded to John Brown." 

The jE?j(yMzrer having done much to make Brown a hero, it is pleas- 
ing to see it taking steps towards making amends for so serious a fault. 
When it ceases to regard Brown as a man of " extraordinary courage," 
it will then, and not till then, have purged itself of the fault of having 
aided in giving old Brown the false character of a hero. It is as true as 
that light makes day and its absence darkness, that when the history of 



John Brown. 23 

•the Kansas excitement ib written, that " John Brown, instead of a hero, 
will stand before the country in his true character" — that of the murder- 
er and hypocritical fanatic, who can die with a lie in his mouth, and 
face the terrors of the scaffold with a conscience unpurged of all the sins 
in the calendar of crime. We would commend to Southerners who will 
insist on Brown's characteristics of a hero, the following "four estimates 
of John Brown," 

The Rev. Mr. VVayland, of Worcester, compares him to "Patrick 
Henry, Otis, and Warren." Also, declares that " History shall trea- 
sure his worJs, and youth shall repeat them on the stage of boyish 
declamation." 

Wendell Phillips says he is a greater and a better man than Wash- 
ington was, and that if he is hanged it will take more than two Wash- 
ingtons to be born in Virginia to wipe out the wrong. 

The Hartford Courant compares him to Algernon Sydney, Hampden 
and Cromwell. Also, declares that ho is a hero. (When the news of the 
murders first came, it declared he ought to be hung as a felon.) 

Wm. James Watkins, (negro,) who addressed a Republican meetiag 
at Broekett's Bridge, New York, on the evening of November 2d, de- 
clared of him that " he was a hero, as brave and as holy as the sun ever 
flashed upon." Al?o, that " Washington does not deserve to be men- 
tioned in the same day with Captain John Brown." 

I give them as they are found floating in the newspapers. 

Such a comparison is almost enough to make disunionists of us all ; 
to create a desire for non-fellowship with people so lost to justice as to 
desire the pardon of a felon, and so blind to their duties as patriots as to 
deify a traitor. Think of John Brown's being greater than Washing- 
ton, and equal to Algernon Sidney, Hampden and Cromwell! But 
what shall we say when a convicted traitor to the country is compared to 
Otis who plead, and Warren who fought for the liberties Brown aimed 
to subvert ? What shall Virgiuians say when a grovelling negro thief is 
held to be a compeer of their own Patrick Henry, whose patriotism was 
only equalled by his eloquence, and whose mind was as " independent as 
an eagle in his eyrie I" 

Of a verity, John Brown, if all were true that is ssid of uim, is a 
"hero as brave and as holy as the sun ever flashed upon ." 



24 John Brown. 

The Christian Abolitionists of New England are to celebrate Brown's 
birth-day and " martyrdom." 

" Ye hypocritcB ! are these your pranks'— 
To murder folks and then give thanke '' 
Forhear, I say ! proceed no further, 
For God delights in no such murder. ' ' 

Robert Burne never penned a happier verse. 



f 



VI 

EPISTLE TO AN ANONYMOUS CORRESPONDENT. 

[Published in the New York /itraW.] 



*' K he sowet] ibc wind, he might haTC expected to reap the whirlwind." — Sentimbwt 
mou TiiE Bible. 



Norfolk, Va., Nov. 3, 185&. 
To the Editor of the Herald : 

Having received an anonymous letter which I desire to answer, 1 re- 
quest that you allow me to do so through your journal, as the author is 
unknown and the newspaper is the only channel through which a reply 
•would probably reach him and those for whom it is intended. The letter 
follows. It is without date, but postmarked New York. 

THE LETTER, 

To H. C, Pate — Border Ruffian and Pet of the President : — 
There is an old saying, of which you have probably heard, that " Pot- 



John Brown. 25 

should not call kettle black." You call Brown an outlaw. What have 
joubeen? Any better ? You call yourself Henry Clay Pate — you can- 
not blame your mother for giving you that name ; but don't bring in that 
honored man in such hideous connection. Why not H. C. and the rest ^ 
You are determined it shall not be broken Pate, at least. Old Brown, 
I grant, is a vile incendiary, and his course condemned by all parties, 
but '* those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." The cause 
which drove Brown into such excesses and maddened his brain, should 
make you blush to own. Think of a President who refused the assist- 
ance of the United States troops to prevent murder, and who rewarded 
the murderer with the oflSce of United States Marshal. Eead the en- 
closed statement of facts, and say what you would have been under less 
provocation. Yours &c. plain truth. 

From a Jeffersonian Republican. 

THE ENCLOSURE. 

" The history of the provoking causes of Brown's Kansas career are 
thus stated by the Cleveland Herald : 

" John Brown had a son, \L. P. Brown, who near Easton that winter 
(1855-56) was taken prisoner by the Missouri ruffians and confined in a 
store.. Then it was an express visited Fort Leavenworth, and begged 
that United States troops might go to the spot and save Brown from 
being murdered. That was refused, and refused too, in compliance with 
positive orders from Washington. What followed ? Capt. E. P. Brown 
was helpless and alone in the power of the pro-slavery men ; that band 
of ruffians struck him, and he rose to his feet and asked to be permitted 
to fight the best man among them — he would fight for his life — but the 
cowards dared not give him a chance. Brown then dared any two or 
three of them to fight him, but the cowards would not comply with that 
request. 

•' Then the fiends in human shape rushed upon the unarmed, and defence- 
less Brown, and actually hacked him to pieces with their hatchets. A 
slaveholder named Gibson, dealt the fatal blow, burying a hatchet in the 
.side of Brown's head, splitting his skull four inches, and scattering his 
brains. Brown fell, and his enemies jumped upon him. While dying 
Brown cried out, " Don't kill me — I am dying;" and one of the pro- 
slavery wretches — since then awarded with a commission as United States 
Marshal — stooped over the prostrate man and spit tobacco juice in his eyes 



26 John Brovni. 

" Thus died Capt. E. P. Brown— a free State Martyr — the sod of John 
Brown, known as Ossawatomie Brown. ^ 

•' From that time forward the .old man devoted himself to warfare 
upon slavery. He became the leading free State partisan in the Kansas 
troubles. He was the terror of the Missouri frontier." 



REPLr. 

The mendacity of your letter id only eqalled by the ignorance it dis- 
plays, and surpassed by your own cowardice in sending me an anony- 
mous note. It would not be noticed if it were the only one of the kind 
I have received, and did not reflect the sentiments of a large number of 
Northern people known as black republicans and abolitionists, amongst 
whom I have been vilified for the last three or four jrears. It i3 to 
their sense of justice and reason — if they have them — I would appeal, 
through you, for a respectful hearing at least. That I am, according to 
popular prejudice at the North, a "border rufiian," it will not be 
denied ; but that 1 am a real ruffian you shall be put upon the proof, if 
my proposition, herein made, shall be accepted. But I do deny most 
emphatically that I am the " pet of the President." If I am a pet of 
Mr. Buchanan, the subscriber is not awnre of it, having never received a 
crumb of comfort from his hand, nor the least evidence of his favor, 
but instead, his disfavor. Although I have not asked of him anything 
for myself, I have been denied something for a friend. That show of 
disfavor, however, did not make -me an enemy of his administration, as 
it might have done you, and I am ready to defend it, so far as becomes 
any good democrat. Whatever else you may say of the President, he 
"has not that sin to answer for," the sin of "petting ".the subscribing 
border ruffian. You ask, if Brown is, an outlaw, what am I ? I would 
put that question to you. I have never been in the penitentiary, 
although some of your friends have tried to get rae there. Brown has, 
it seems, from pretty good testimony, I never killed a man, white or 
black, nor a woman, in cold blood, or in any other way, though your 
abolition organs have charged it on me ; Brown has. I never robbed 
and burned a house, albeit I stood accused in Dr. Grihon's attempt at a 
book, with that same ; Brown has. I nevor stole a negro, notwith- 
standing it has been published that I hooked one, which turned out to 
be my own ; Brown has, by his own confession and the admission of his 
warmest admirers. I have never been found guilty of treason, insurrec- 
tion and murder, and sentenced to be hung for those high crimes, which 



John Brown. 2T 

your friends have not had the face to charge upon mo ; John Brown ha?. 
Then why insinuate that I am an outlaw ? Only because I am a slave- 
holder ? If that be so, I rejoice to find myself in such excellent com- 
pany as Gov. Wise, Senator Hunter, Secretary Cobb and Suijuen A. 
Douglas, not mentioning thousands of the truest patriots and best of 
men, including that illustrious statesman in his grave, whose name you 
pretend to think I dishonor. (Do you suppose his spirit would not 
blush to own an admirer of a traitor to the country he loved so dearly, 
and served so faithfully, like you, to be an admirer of himself?) You 
think Brown " is a vile incendiary," aad " condemn hia course." Why 
then do you volunteer as his advocate, and my traducer on his account ? 
Possibly you hate the treason, but love the traitor. You disclaim the 
murder but adore the murderer. You condemn the theft, but admire the 
negro thief. You despise house burning, but patronize the " vile incen- 
diary." Your excuse about equals your logic, and your logic compares 
favorably with your intelligence, of which you have little to boast, 
judging from the only evidence before ma. 

It is entirely new to me that E. P. Brown, killed at Eaaton, was a 
son of old John. It was not talked of at the time, nor afterwards, and 
I do not believe he was any more of kin to Ossawatomic Brown than 
you are — though your relationship may not be very distant,. As to tho 
circumstances of his death I know nothing, but I do not entertain the 
idea that they were such as described by the Cleveland Herald. No 
man abhors cold-blooded murder more than I ; none would go farther 
to punish it, or sooner denounce it, in friends as well as foes, as I have 
done. Who is the murderer referred to, is as little known to me as to 
you — perhaps less. That he was rewarded for the deed by the Presi- 
dent, or that the troops when needed were withdrawn by his order, is as 
untrue as that you are " most ignorant of what you are most assured." 
You evidently refer to Mr. Buchanan, when, if you knew as much as 
you think you do, you would know that General Pierce was President 
at the time E. P. Brown was killed, the date being given in the ex- 
tract from the Cleveland Herald which you sent me. 

Old Brown says he went to Kansas to " fight the battles of freedom." 
Redpath states that for thirty years he " secretly cherished the idea of 
being the leader in a servile insurrection." The -' Jefi"ersonian republi- 
cans " furnished him money to go to Kansas, and gave him the where- 
withal to begin the war; and Old Brown has none but himself and his 
friends to blame. If he sowed the wind, he might have expected to 
reap the whirlwind. If he appealed to the sword, he ought to bo wil- 



28 John Bro'um. 

ling to die by the sword. If he resorted to the hx talionis, he should 
be ready to abide by the law of retaliation. If he invoked assassina- 
tion, could he complain of others killing in self-defence ? " 'Tis evea 
handed justice conamends the ingredients of the poisoned ahalice to our 
own lips," If any of Brown's sons were murdered, I do not know it. 

The proposition I have to make is this : Your letter being post- 
marked New York, I presurae you are a New Yorker, and as you have 
hinted at a want of courage on my part, in referring, very ungrammati- 
cally, if not in extremely bad taste, to a " broken Pate," I will come to 
New York, hold a discussion with you, if you are a respectable person, 
or any of your party, on the subject of your anonymous communication, 
and my course in Kansas, with an incidental defence of Mr. Buchanan's 
administration if necessary. Or, I will come and speak alone, if you 
prefer it. The speech or discussion must take place in some promineot 
hall, and the proceeds, if anything is charged for admission, shall go ta 
the fund for the purchase of Mount Vernon, or the erection of the 
Washington Monument, as I may designate. Vou can make known the 
acceptance of the proposition through the New York papers, and I will 
come on and prepare for the occasion. 

Should you prefer to come South, I can assure you of polite treatment, 
and that you will receive satisfactory evidence that I am not a ruffian. 
Yet you will find that I " know my rights, and knowing, dare maintaiii 
them." H. CLAY PATE. 

To Plain Trutb. New York. 




•John Brown. 20 



vn. 



THE BATTLE OF BLACKJACK. 



■" He who fi^hU »nd ruas a-yay, shail liye to fight another day." — Hudihuac 



ITS HISTORr. 

This battle was fougin at Black-jack Point, in Kansas Territory, on 
the second of June, 1856. I was encamped at that place, with about 
twenty-five men ; myself acting under the orders of T. W. Haya, U. S. 
Marshal for the Southern District of Kansas. 

On the 24th day of May, 1856, the Pottawatomie Creek massacre 
took place. My readers are already acquainted with the nature of that 
transaction. The statements of Mrs, John Doyle and son, and Mrs. 
Allen "Wilkinson, as sworn to before competent officers, are in existence, 
and I think were published aloug with the minority report of the Hon. 
Mr. Oliver of Missouri, one of the Kansas Investigating Committee, 
whose report in full was printed by Congress in 1856. There is no 
doubt of this massacre ; and there is no less doubt that the five persons 
killed were inoffensive — in fact, a party of more peacable citizens could 
not have been found in the limits of the Territory. Their only offence 
was that they voted with the pro-slavery party. 

[t has been alleged that they had threatened John Brown's life. It 
was not true. Allen Wilkinson was the most conservative member of 
the first Legislature of Kansas ; so much so, in fact, that he was not 
considered a reliable party man, and was suspected of free-soilism. 
William Sherman was a German cattle-trader. Old Mr. Doyle and his 
sons lived quietly on a claim, and were farmers on a small scale. Living 
in a free-soil neighborhood, it was their policy to take no active part ia 
the struggle as to whether Kansas should be a slave or free State. 



30 John Brown. 

The subject was up between Old Brown and myself at CharlestowD, 
on the 22d November last, and he did not pretend to deny that he 
killed the fire settlers as stated, nor is it worth while for his friends to 
do so. The evidence is overwhelming igainst them. 

It was when I heard of these murders, that I raised a company of 
emigrants and marched to the neighborhood of the troubles to join 
those in search of the guilty parties. 

Brown had fled. The free-soilers pledged themselves to assist in his 
capture, and a few did so — principally those about Paola and Staunton, 
It so happened that the Marshal, after failing to find Brown on the 
Merais de Signe, divided his forces and sent me to the neighborhood of 
Prairie City, near which Brown was encamped with his band of outlaws. 

While camped at Black- Jack, I sent out scouts to discover if any- 
thing could be heard of the murderers ; some of these scouts, contrary 
to orders, acted very improperly, by interfering with free-soil settlers 
in an unwarrantable manner. Taking advantage of such outrages^ 
Brown rallied to his standard all the neighborhood, and sent to the ad- 
jacent towns for help. I was attacked early in the morning of the 2d 
June ; most of the men being asleep when the alarm was given. We 
were soon surrounded, and after fighting three or four hours, were taken 
prisonerB in the manner hereafter stated. 

I am now enabled to publish a stitement, which goes to confirm all I 
have ever alleged about Brown's treachery in taking me prisoner under 
a flag of truce. I went to Charlestown, and had an audience with the 
prisoner. The reader is referred to this 

STATEMENT. 

The undersigned were present at an interview between Capt. H. Clay 
Fate, and John Brown, in the jail at Charlestown, Virginia, November 
22d, 1859, and make the following statement : In relation to the viola- 
tion of the flag of truce, by Capt. Brown, at the battle of Black- Jack, 
in Kansas, he said that if the truce was violated by him, it was uninten- 
tional, but admitted that when the flag came to him, it was borne by 
Henry James, one of Pate's men, accompanied by a free-soiler, (taken 
prisoner and held as a spy in Pate's camp, as we learn from Capt. P.) ; 
that when Pate's request to meet whomever might be in command, and 
" have a talk." was made known to Brown, who was the commander of 
the .opposite party, he (B.) requiring James to remain, sent back the 



John Brown, 31 

free-soiler to say thai he (Brown) would meet Capt. Pate himself ; that 
he went out and met Brown, who after asking him if he had any pro- 
posals to make, flatly told him that he would hear to none but a surren- 
der ; that Pate said he would reply on returning to and consulting his 
company ; that Brown refused, calling to his aid his most reliable men, 
and requiring Pate to advance in front of them, so that he and James- 
would receive and fall by the fire of both his own and Brown's men, in 
case either fired. Capt. Brown admittel that some of his party were 
close to him at the time he required Pate and James to accompany him 
and surrender, although he placed little or no reliance on them. When 
Capt. Pate declared that he was in B's power, having relied upon hie 
good faith in respecting the truce, and could not help himself, and that 
the truce was not ended until he was back in his camp, in the same posi- 
tion he occupied before the truce was granted, Stevens, Brown's fellow- 
prisoner, of his own accord, spoke out earnestly, and said with emphasis 
"the flag was violated." It was agreed between Capt. B. and 
Capt. Pate, that when Brown's company, with Pate and James in front, 
came near Pate's company. Brown required Pate to give the order to 
surrender, which Pate refused to do, after which his men threw down 
their arms, of their own notion, seeing their desperate situation, and the 
danger of their Captain. During this interview, Capt. Brown said that 
he had never imputed cowardice to Capt. Pate, but declared then, as 
he had done on all occasions, public and private, that the latter gave him 
the hardest fight he had in Kansas, and that he and his company bore 
themselves bravely during the fight, and gentlemanly during their im- 
prisonment, and that Black- Jack was the only good fighting by pro- 
slavery men that he «aw in Kansas. Capt. Brown admitted that he had 
twenty-five reliable fighting men during the battle; and also that as 
soon as Captain P. and company were prisoners, there were perhaps 
seventy, and perchance one hundred men armed and equipped, on the 
ground, to share the spoils with him. He however said that Capt. 
Shore and company had left the field, and that he did not depend on anj' 
but his " twenty-five " reliable men for aid in the fight. (He was sorry 
to admit that some who were with him, were found wanting, for reasons 
he would not mention in words.) 

We were present during the entire interview, and the above facts may 
be relied on. 

.TAS. ED. NA8H, Petersburg, Va. 

JOHN AVIS, Jailor. 

JOHN J. H. STRAITH, M. D. 



32 John Brown. 

The entire number of Brown's party, I could not certify to with par- 
ticularity, but I have always contended there were over' one hundred. 
It is clear that the truce was violated, because I should have been per- 
mitted tD pla03 myself in the same position I was in when the truce was 
granted, before hostilities were re-commeuced. The truce would not have 
been ended until I was back in my camp. 

It will be seen at a glance that Brown acknowledges enough to show 
any reasonable man, that he violated the truce. He kept men near 
him whom I did not see for the tall prairie grass, and was in that way 
able to overpower me and Henry James. I did not surrender, but was 
treacherously taken. In making such acknowledgements as those cer- 
tified to above, Brown did a simple act of justice, and no more. 

MT FIRST ACCODNT, 

I here give .some extracts from my account of the battle as publiabed iu ihe St. 
Xoais Republican, under date of June 9th, 1856. 

Patting my command under the United States Marshal, we, led by 
Company C, United States Dragoons, Capt. Wood, scoured the country 
for the murderers. They could not be found at the place where it was 
said they were fortified and prepared to fight. On the morning of Sat- 
urday, 21st May, the Marshal divided his forces, sending them in various 
directions. He ordered my company to Hickory point and neighborhood. 
Saturday night we camped at Black-Jack point, near by, and remained 
there till Monday. On Sunday afternoon, four of my company, who 
were scouting, fell into the hands of the very party of assassins whom we 
were in search of. Two escaped to bring the news, but escaped narrowly 
— a shower of balls fell on all sides of them as they galloped away. I 
at once prepared to be attacked, and selected a spot for camp near some 
ravines which were calculated to yield protection. A strict watch was 
kept all night, but no alarm was given. However, about an hour by the 
sun, the mounted guard on the South rode into camp and gave notice of 
the enemy's approach. Although every man but the guards was sleeping, 
in five minutes all were in line but one or two. As the enemy came in 
sight they were hailed and asked, " Who are you ? — what do you want ?" 
This was repeated, bat no answer came except bullets, and they came 
pretty thick. As soon as could be, the men were got in a near ravine, 
which protected them from the enemy's fire, but before this could be ef- 
fectually done, five of my boys were wounded, viz.: R. A. Wood, E. Mc- 
Goldrick, formerly of Greorgia ; James McGee, of One Hundred and Ten 



John Brown. 33 

Creek, K. T.; J. B. Lambert, late of Richmond, Virginia; and Tim. 
Conelly, late of the battle ground. Wood shot in the throat, the ball 
passing through the lungs and out under the shoulder blade ; McGoldrick, 
shot in the mouth — teeth and half the tongue carried away. These two 
are thought to be mortally wounded, but are doing well. James McGee, 
wounded — getting well; Lambert, shot through ihe shoulder — recovering; 
and Connelly, wounded in the thigh — convalescent. 

At first the enemy squatted down in open prairie and fired at a dis- 
tance of from three to four hundred yards from us. Their lines were 
soon broken and they hastily ran to a ravine for shelter. Both parties 
being sheltered, less damage was done to either — none to ours after going 
into the ravine. Our tents were on a point exposed, and it was danger- 
ous to go to them for anything ; yet when anything in them or the wag, 
ons was needed, some of my brave fellows would have it, at every haz, 
ard. 

At one time we were in need of caps, which were in a bag in one of 
the wagons; M. B. Hurst, a private, risked his life and got them, in spite 
of a hail-storm of bullets that whistled around him. Henry James, a 
young man of nineteen, son of Judge Ja-jnes, the Sac and Fox Agent, 
proved himself a hero. No less than half a dozen times he risked his 
life for necessary things in the camp. In the ranks of the enemy, a young 
fellow, more rash than wise, would jump up and crow exultingly, every 
few moments. Young James stealibily crept to a tent nearest the enemy, 
and, by raising the wall, entered without being seen. With his knife he 
cut a port hole in the tent wall, and, when the rash young gentleman 
jumped up to crow again James shot him down before he finished. Just 
before the youth fell, several told him he would get a bullet through him 
if he did not behave, and he got it. 

After the firing had gone on for about three hours, there was a lull 
which I took advantage of in order to have an understanding with the 
captain of the opposite party. When the fight commenced our forces 
were nearly equal, but I saw that reinforcements for the Abolitionists 
were near, and that the fight would be desperate, and, if they persisted, 
not one would be left to tell the tale of carnage that most follow. Ma- 
jor L. B. Washington, who was wounded slightly in riding ofiF early ia 
the engagement, was sent for reinforcements for us. My object was to 
gain time and, if possible, have hostilities suspended for a while. With 
this view a flag of truce was sent out, and an interview with the captaia 
requested. Captain Brown advan>jed and sent for me. I approached him 
and made known the fact that I was acting under the orders of the U. S. 



34 John Brown. 

Marshal, and was only in starch of persons for whom writs of arrest had 
been issued, and that i wished to make a proposition. He replied that 
he would hear no proposals, and that he wanted an unconditional 
surrender. I asked for fifteen minutes to answer. He refused, and 1 
•was taktii prisoner under the Jiag of truce, a barbarity unlocked for in 
this tountry, and unheard of in the annals of honorable warfare. He 
had men concealed near him, who pointed their Sharp's rifles at me, 
and I had no alternative but to submit, or run and be shot. Had I 
known whom I was fighting, I would not have trusted to a flag of truce. 

The enemy's men w^ere then marched up to within fifty paces of mine, 
and I placed before them. Captain Brown commanded me to order mj 
company to lay down their arms. Putting a revolver to my breast, he re- 
peated the command, giving me one or two minutes to make the order. 
He might have shot me ; his men migli* have riddled me, but I would 
not have given the order for a world, much less my poor life. Brown had 
violated the most sacred rules of warfare; he had shown himself devoid 
of honor, and death was better than surrender to such a man ; but the 
company, seeing the situation I was in, voluntarily laid down their arms 
to save the life of their captain. 

We were taken to a camp on Middle Ottawa Creek, and closely guard- 
ed. We had to cook for ourselves, furnish provisions, and sleep on the 
ground, but were not treated unkindly. Here we remained three days 
and nights, until Col. Sumner, at the head of a company of Dragoons, 
released us from our imprisonment. 

Brown and his confederates were the men engaged in the Pottawatto 
inie massacre, and whom I was authorized to arrest. In fact, as I say to 
ay friends, I went to take Old Brown, and Old Brown took me. 

H. C. P. 

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE. 

At the time we were taken, 1 had about twenty available men. At 
the beginning of , the fight, there were some thirty odd in my camp, 
Surveyor John D. Pennylaker, with a few men, having come into my 
camp the night before. Tie now resides in Rockingham county, Virr 
ginia, and is the Senator elect from that district. Mr. Pennylaker has 
recently published statements confirmatory of mine, as regards Brown'.s 
treachery. 

W. H. Brown, a young gentleman of Alexandria, Virginia, wrote a 
letter from Plattsburg, Mo., June 20th, 1856, to the Alexandria Ga- 
zette, in which after denying that I surrendered, he says : " I was one 
under Capt. Pate's command, who is as brave an offieer as ever unsheathed 



John Brown. 35 

a Bxvord — as were all of his officers — acd are men not educated to surren- 
der to equal numbers." Col, Joseph C. Anderson, of Lexin'^ton, Mis- 
souri, furnished an account to the Lexington Express, in which he says : 
" Capt. Pate and his email posse, who had been called out by the 
Deputy Marshal, were overwhelmed by a superior force of outlaws, 
under the lead of Brown." 

The Hon. John T. Hughes, of Indiana, Col E. C. McCarty, of 
Missouri, andW. H. Kussell, Esq., of Kansas, whose names are too well 
known in the west to need an endorsement, made a public statemsnt of 
aflFairs in Kansas, dated June 11th, 1856, at Leavenworth City. It was 
printed in the Missouri Republican, and other papers of that State. 
They say : 

" On Saturday the 24th day of May, a party of them (abolitionists) 
in Franklin county, mardered a Mr. Wilkinson, old Mr. Doyle, and two 
of his sons, and two of the Shermans,* all in the same neighborhood. 
These murders were committed in the most shocking and most barbarous 
manner, and it is said that some of them were dreadfully mutilated 
before they were killed, by cutting off their hands, noses, and the like. 
Thus it is that men have been dragged from their beds at the dead hour 
of night, and their throats cut amidst the cries and entreaties of their 
wives and children, and that without mercy. 



" On the 2d day of June, Capt. H, C. Pate, and twenty- eight men, 
were out in the neighborhood of Black- Jack Point, near the Santa b'e 
road, forty miles from Westport , for the purpose of executing certain 
writs upon those who had violated the laws, and was attacked by a 
guerilla party of abolitionists, commanded by one Brown, numberin*' 
one hundred and twenty-five men. After a sharp conflict, in which 
Capt. Pate had some of his men severely wounded, (and as it is be- 
lieved two of them mortally wounded,) he hoisted a flag of truce. 
Capt. Pate sent one man and a prisoner, whom he had with him, to 
oarry the flag of truce to the Captain of the assailants. They were 
sent back with the demand that Capt. Pate should bear the flag himself. 
He did so, and when he came up under a flag of truce, Brown ordered 
twelve of his men to seize him and bold him as a prisoner of war. They 



* It was thought for some weeks that Henry Sherman was killed also. He was not 
murdered then, but the same crowd killed him the next year. The murder of "Dutch 
Henry " was atrocious. The outlaws said tiiey would " have " him, and they "got" 
him at last. 



36 John Brown. 

then held a cocked pistol to Capt. Pate's breast and told him if he did 
not order his men to surrender, they would blow him through !" 

1 might go on, almost ad infinitum, with evidences substantiating all 
I have ever said in my defence, connected with the battle of Black- 
Jack, but I will stop here. My enemies, of whom I have more than 
my share, have endeavored to injure me by iasisting on false accounts, 
which they know to be utterly worthless. Fortunately, I have been 
vindicated by the very man through whom they have endeavored to ruin 
nae. Even their own statemfents are so contradictory, that they prove 
themselves false. One declares that I was taken with six men, without 
my fifing a gun, another that Brown took me with nine men, and 
another with ten, another with thirteen, another sixteen, and so on. 

The worst that can be said of me, is that I made a mistake at Black- 
jack, in trusting myself to the protection of a flag of truce, which I 
certainly would not have done, had I known that Old Brown was dealing 
with me. I am consoled when remembering that Gen. Washington was 
defeated in his first battle. That did not keep him from becoming a 
great General ; it rather aided him in that same, for the school of ex- 
perience is the best at last. And now I promise my friends, should I 
ever have another chance, that such a mistake will not be made by me 
again. 

I did not surrender at Black-jack, and I never intend to, if I can 
help it. 

I should mention befjre concluding this chapter, that anothet object 
of mine, in desiring to meet Brown, or the commander of the enemy, 
whoever he might be, was to apologize for any outrages of my men, 
thereby placing myself in the right, before the matter should go farther. 
It was the first time American citizens, of different States, professing 
different politics, had met in battle array, (for I did not dream I was 
fighting Brown,) and I considered that there was a responsibility resting 
upon me which I, as a true patriot, could not disregard. I intended to 
put myself right, and then go ahead, regardless of consequences. This 
was not mentioned in my first account, for reasons 1 can explain satis- 
factorily, whenever it becomes needful. There is another consolation 
for me, if I showed the " white feather " at Black- Jack, namely : 

" He who fights and runs away shall live to fight another day ?" 



John Brown. 37 



VIII. 



A FEW PUFFS. 



" 1 do not believe there is anything in Virginia but a puflf." — Wbndell Puillips. 



NOTES. 



The articles herewith published, entitled " John Browa and Compa- 
ny," were originally printed, as they were written, in the Norfolk 
Argus. It is my intention, if nothing interferes, to continue them in 
another work, because the subject is by no means exhausted. I have 
matter enough for an interesting volume about Kansas and the Harper's 
Ferry affair, and may issue one this Winter. However, as there is 
" nothing in Virginia but a mere puff," my resolution may blow away, 
and with it all my notes and worthy intentions. Hence, it is best for 
my readers to exp ect nothing, and then they will, in all probability, not 
be disagreeably disappointed. 

I first met John E. Cook in Brown's camp, on Middle Ottawa Creek, 
in Kansas, when I was a prisoner. He appeared pleased to meet me, 
for the reason, as he stated — I give his words — that I was " the only 
gentleman he came up with at the (so-called) siege of Lawrence." On 
visiting him at Charlestown he seemed glad to see me, and took appa- 
rent pleasure in stating to those around, that he had admired my conduct 
for its moderation, and my apparent desire to do right. In Brown's 
camp Cook proposed that if either of us should meet afterwards in bat- 
tle, each should spare the other, if an occasion presented itself, a propo- 
sition which I considered well meant, and accepted. He was aftewards 
at my house in Westport, Missouri, when I treated him kindly. He 
then had a great liking for ladies' company, and requested me to intro- 



38 John Brown. 

tluce Lira ; but I did not do it, not having the time and opportunity. 
I was inclined to like him, while at the same time there was something 
about the fellow that repelled confidence, and fitted him for the calling 
of a spy. He was possibly acting in that capacity when he came to see 
me in Missouri. 

During my visit to the prison in Charlestown, Brown explained why 
my Bowie knife, which has been mentioned as taken and hid by Fred 
Brown, was not returned to me. He said that one of his party, whose 
name, for the sake of his cause, he would not mention, saw Fred 
Brown hide it, and then stole it, afterwards, trading it off. Captain 
Brown said that he subsequently traced the knife through several par- 
ties, and finally got it. He since gave it to a gentleman in Massachusetts 
as a token of respect and friendship. The name of this person he would 

not give. 

I liave thought Gapt. Brown gave this knife to Dr. Howe ; and that 
the fellow who stole it in Kansas from his son, Fred, was the thief 
referred to by Col. Forbes, who says he was re-employed by Brown out 
of " admiration for a desperate feat" of roguery in Missouri. 

He said he would have returned the knife if he had ever seen me, and 
always desired to explain why it was kept back. I told him I would 
like to own my knife once more, anl would purchase it, if he would let 
me know who had it — but he seemed afraid to do so, possibly thinking 
his friend in Massachusetts would be compromised, were he to furnish 
his name. If Brown's friend will send my weapon to me, I shall be 
obliged to him. 

I first visited Brown in jail on the evening of the 21st November. 
The next morning T was told by Capt. Avis that he desired to see me. 
When I went in, the old fellow was taking his frugal breakfast of coffee 
and bread, or broth and bread — I did not define which it was. I told 
him not to let me disturb his meal. He handed me a paper, and asked 
me to read aloud an article which he pointed out. The paper was the 
Charlestown Democrat, and the article, that from the Kansas Herald of 
Freedom, about the Pottowatomie massacre, from which I have quoted, 
and which has been so extensively printed and read in the United States. 
While I read, Brown addressed himself attentively to his bowl of 
breakfast. Dr. Straith and his son, Jas. R. Nash and Capt, Avis were 
present. When the piece was read, he asked me to give my opinion as 
to whether the Herald of Freedom was the leading Free State paper of 
the Territory. I told him it was so at one time, and accredited a^ such ; 



John Brown. 39 

but that later, there had been a split ia the party, and iho radical Rc- 
publicaos repudiated it. He then asked nie if its atatemenos could be 
relied on. I replied that they could not, when Southern men and things 
were concernod ; that it was like the New York Tribune ; but was 
moderate and truthful iu many matter.^ connected with territorial 
affairs. I was then asked by Capt. Brown, my opinion as to whether ho 
committed the murders on Pottawatomie Creek. My answer was that 1 
bad always thought so, because I had seen and heard the sworn statements 
of Mrs. Doyle confirmed by her son, and Mrs\ "Wilkinson, who said 
under oath that he killed their husbands, and nothing had ever shaken 
my belief in their evidence. To this he made no reply, only murmur- 
ing something about the murdered men being peaceable c'tizens ; but ho 
did not den hat he killed them. 

PUPPS ABOUT REDPATfl. 

1 he first invention sent by Kansas correspondents, as a justification 
of the massacre, to the Northern Republican papers, was that they 
were killed thus : A party of free-soilers suddenly came on a party of 
pro-slavery men who were hanging an abolitionist. The free-soilers, 
just five also, each selected a pro-slavery fellow, fired, and the work was 
done. No names nor dates were given. This was rather a lame do. 
fence, and a new story was started. That was that the murdered men 
had threatened Brown's life, and had in fact warned him to leave or pay 
the penalty. "The next thing ^/jey knew, they knew nothing. " No 
names nor dates to this invention. Such are the absurd defences of 
those sympathizers of his, who would shield Browu from the respon- 
sibility and odium cf hig terrible crimes. The manufacturer of one of 
these stories at least, and that the most absurd, is James Redpath, the 
writer who gets up a much better article on fiction than on fact. Ho is 
the author of the following : 

•' I never chanced to meet old Brown for many months after the cap- 
ture of Clay Pate at Black- Jack. 

"I ought, however, to mention how the letters that I sent by ' Old 
Moore, the minister,' fared. I gave him three letters — the first a little 
note to a southern lady ; the second, my ' Confessions of a Horse Thief;' 
the third, a description of the condition of the country, in which was an 
account of the sacking of Palmyra, by H. Clay Pate and his men. 

"I told ' Old Moore, the minister,' if he were pursued, to destroy the 
large letters, which were designed for publication ; but to preserve the 
other-— the note— as there was nothing in it that could implicate him. 



40 John Brown. 

" He had not gone inanj miles before he was seen, and pursued by Clay 
Pate's scouts. In his excitement he forgot my directions — preserved the 
• JDcendiary documents ' and destroyed the harmless hilltl diux. He 
was captured and brought to the camp. Pate ordered the letters to be 
opened, as soon as he learned they were mine — for we were rival corres- 
pondents for rival journals— and appointed Coleman, whom I had de- 
nounced as a murderer, to read my productions to his men ! 

♦' First, came my ' Confessions of a Horse Thief.' Captain Wood, the 
United States officer who arrested me, was spared the ridicule, I had 
endeavored to throw on him, for Pate threw the letter into the fire. 

" Next came my description of the sacking of Palmyra and the Saxon 
names for Pate and his company. Old Moore declared afterward that 
he felt uneasy for his safety when he saw the rage which my letters 
aroused. It was universally admitted that I ought to be hanged, and 
they swore they would do it, too — when the cat was belled. As Mr. 
Moore was a quiet, unofFensive old man, and as he knew nothing of the 
contents of my letters till they were read in the pro-slavery camp, they 
permitted him to proceed on his journey to Kansas City. 

The next news of Pate was an account of his failure to capture Old 
Brown, although he had thirty men, and of Brown's success in capturing 
Pate, although the Old Captain had only ten men." 

Lie No. 1. — I never "sacked Palmyra," 

Lie No. 2. — " Old Moore " was not captured by my men, but was 
taken by Pennybaker's party. 

Lie No. 3. — 1 never saw those letters, and therefore did not " order 
them to be opened," nor did I " appoint Coleman to rjad them." 

Lie No. 4. — I did not throw "the letter in the fire," fcr I did not 
have it to throw there. 

Lie No. 5. — " Old Moore " was not " permitted to go on his jour- 
ney," for he was a prisoner when I was taken. Penr-ybaker was con- 
veying him to Lecompion. 

Lie No. 6.— Brown did not take me with " only ten men." 

If there were such letters as those described by Bedpath, they were 
taken and opened by Pennylacker, or some one else, not by me . 

These are only a few points going to show the truthfulness of this 
roman3er. And Bedpath is as great a coward as liar. If he were as 
good a fighter with the sword as he is with the pen, he would be a war- 
rior more celebrated than Napoleon, and a conqueror, equal, if not 
superior, to Alexander the Great. He will insult you with the pen, and 



Jolin Brown. 41 

then refuse you satisfaction with the sword. Set it down : a coward is 
always a liar, and a liar is ahoays a coward. 

OLD brown's VEBACITT. 

Before I left the prison, Capt. Brown referred me to the report of 
his speech at Cleveland, in the Plain Dealer. He. said in that he had 
done me full justice, giving me all the credit for bravery he was willing 
to grant I deserved then. He had cut out the report, which was a full 
one, and he said it was among his captured papers on the Kennedy farm, 
and hoped I might find and use it. He was willing before he died, to 
do what he could to vindicate me frona unjust aspersions and ungen- 
erous insinuations. I left him impressed with a favorable opinion of 
his truthfulness. It was not long, however, before that opinion was 
dispelled. He denied to me in prison, that he had ever said he took me 
at Black-Jack with sis, nine, or ten men. At Harper's Ferry, I met a 
gentleman of the highest respectability, who declared that Brown told 
him, only the day before, I think, that he defeated me with nine men — 
he would make oath to it. I confess I was disappointed ; but I ought 
to have known that such inconsistent conduct was in keeping with 
Brown's entire life and deportment. I did know, but temporarily for- 
got it, out of charity for poor, fallen human nature. God forgive hini 
I could puff away until Christmas, if I chose, but let this end my puf- 
fing for the present. 



42 Joh)i Brown. 



IX. 



APPENDIX 



JOHI^f brown'-? idea of aOVERNMENT. 



Among the papers ia possession of Brown and his party, was the 
clrafb of a basis of government, which evidently embraced the fundamen- 
tal ideas which animated the leader and his men. The main features of 
this paper appear in the following synopsis ; 

Prooisional Ccnstiiution and Ordinances for (he People of the 
United States. 

Preamble. — Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the 
United States, is none other than the most barbarous, unprovoked and 
unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens against another portion, 
the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless 
servitude, or absolute extermination in utter disregard and violation of 
those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of In. 
dependence : 

Therefore, We, the citizens of the United States, and the oppressed 
people, who, by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, are declared 
to have no rights which the white man is bound to respect, together 
with all the other people degraded by the laws thereof, do, for the time 
beino-, ordain and establish for ourselves the following Provisional Con- 
stitution and Ordinances, the better to protect our people, property, 
lives, and liberties, and to govern our actions ; 

Qualifications of Membership. 
Article 1. — All persons of mature age, whether proscribed, oppressed, 
and enslaved citizens, or of proscribed and oppressed races of the United 
States, who shall agree to sustain and enforce the Provisional Constitu- 
tion and ordinances of organization, together with all minor children of 
such persons, shall be hold to be fully entitled to protection under the 
same. 

Branches of Government. 

Art. 2. — The Provisional Government of this organization shall con- 
fiist of three branchea, viz. : the Legislative, the Executive, and Judicial. 



Joim, Brown 43 

TiiQ Legislature. 
Art. o. — Tho Legislative J3raucb shall bo a Congress, or iiousc of 
ilcpre«entatives, composed of not loss than live, nor more than ton mem- 
bers, who shall be eluctcd by all tlio citizens of mature age and sound 
mind, connected with this organization, and who shall remain ia office 
for three years, unless sooner removed for misconduct, inability, or 
death. A majority of .such members shall constitute a quorum. 

Execudv'i. 

Art. 4.— The Executive Branch of the organization shall consist of a 

!.*resident and Vice President, who shall be chosen by the citizens, or 

members of this organization, and each of whom shall hold office for throe 

years, unless sooner removed by death, or for inability, or for miscondu.;t. 

Judicial. 

Art. 5. — The Judicial Branch consists of one Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court, and four Associate Judges of the said Court, each of 
them constituting a Circuit Court. They shall each be chosen in the 
same manner as the President, and shall continue in office until their 
places have been filled in the same manner by an election of citizens. 

Articles 13 to 25 provide for the trial of the President and other offi- 
cers, and Members of Congress, tlie impeachment of Judges, the duties 
of the President and Vice President, the punishment of crimes. Army 
appointments, salaries, etc., etc. These articles are not of special inter- 
est and are therefore omitted. 

Treaties of Peace. 

Art. 24. — Before any treaty of peace shall take full eifect it shall be 
signed by the President, Vice President, Commander-in-Chief, and a 
majority of the House of Representatives, a majority of the Supreme 
Court, and a majority of the general officers of the Array. 

Duty of the Military. 
Art. 27. — It shall be the duty of the Commander-in-Chief, and all 
the officers and soldiers of the armv, to afford special protection, when 
needed, to Congress, or any member thereof, to the Supreme Court, or 
any member tliereof, to the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and 
Secretary of War, and to afford general protection to all civil officers, or 
other persons having a right to the same. 

Property. 
Article 28. — All captured or confiscated property, and all the 
property the product of the labor of those belonging to th's organiza- 
tion, and of their familie?, shall be held as the property of the whole 
equally, without distinction, and may be u.sed for the common benefit, 
or disposed of for the same object. And any person, officer or other- 
wise, who shall improperly retain, secrete, use, or needlessly destroy 
such property, or property found, captured, or confiscited. belonging to 
the enemy, or shall willfully neglect to render a full and fair statement 
of such property by him so taken, or held, shall be guilty of a misde- 
xaeanor, and on conviction shall bo punished accordingly 



44 John Brown. 

Art. 29. Safely or Intelligence Fiaid , 

All money, plate, watches, or jewelry captured by honorable warfare, 
found, taken, or confiscated, belonging to the enemy, shall be held sa- 
cred to constitute a liberal safety or intelligence fund, and any person 
who shall improperly retain, dispose of, hide, use, or destroy such mon- 
ey or other articles above named, contrary to the provision and spirit of 
this article, shall be decneJ guilty of theft, and on conviction thereof, 
shall be punished accordingly. The Treasurer shall furnish the Com- 
mander-inChief at all times with a full statement of the condition cf 
such fund, and its nature. 
Art. 30. The Comma7ider-in-Chief and the Treasury. 

The Commander-in-Chief shall have power to draw from the Treasury 
tLe money and other property of the fund provided for in Article 29 ; 
but his orders shall be signed also by the Secretary of War, who shall 
keep a strict account of rho same, subject to examination by any mem- 
ber of Congress or General officer. 
Art. 31. Surplus of the Safety or Intdligenct Fund. 

It shall be the duty of the Commander-in-Chief to advise the President 
of any surplus of the Safety or Intelligence Fund, and he shall have pow- 
er to draw the same, his order being also signed by the Secretary of State, 
to enable him to carry on the provisions of Article 17. 

Art. 32. Prisoners. 

No person, after having surrendered himself a prisoner, and who shall 
properly demean himself or herself as such, to any officer or private con- 
nected with this organization, shall afterward be put to death, or be sub- 
jected to any corporeal punishment, without having first had the benefit 
of a fair and impartial trial ; nor shall any prisoner be treated with any 
kind of cruelty^ disrespect, insult or needless severity, but it shall be the 
duty of all persons, male and female, connected herewith, at all times, 
and under all circumstances, to treat all such prisoners with every degree 
of respect and kindness that the nature of the circumstances will admit 
of, and insist on a like course of conduct from all others as in fear of the 
Almighty God, to whose care and keeping we commit our cause. 
Art. 33. Volunteers. 

All persons who may come forward and, shall voluntarily deliver up 
slaves, and have their names registered on the books of this organization, 
shall, so long as they continue at peace, be entitled to the fullest protec- 
tion in person anct property, though not connected with this organization, 
and shall be treated as friends, and not merely as persons neutral. 

Art. 34. Neutrals. 

The persons and property of all non-slaveholders who shall remain ab- 
solutely neutral, shall be respected so far as circumstances can allow of it, 
but they shall not be entitled to any active protection. 

Art, 35. No Needless Waste. 

The needless waste or destruction of any useful property or article by 
fire, throwing open of fences, fields, buildings, or needless killing of ani- 



John Brown. 45 

raals, or injury of either, shall not be tolerated at any Uine or placo, 'i)ut 
shall be promptly and peremptorily punished . 

Art. 36. Fropcrty Confiscaied. 

The entire personal and real property of all persons known to be acting 
either directly or indirectly with or for the enemy, or found in arms with 
them, or found willfully holdin^^ slaves, shall be confiscated and taken 
whenever and wherever it may be found, in either Free or Slave States. 
Art. 31. Desertion. 

Persons convicted on impartial trials of desertion to the enemy, after 
becoming members, acting as spies, of treacherous surrender of property, 
arms, ammunition, provisions or supplies of any kind, roads, bridges, per- 
sons, or fortifications, shall be put to death, and their entire property 
confiscated. 
Art. 38. Violation of Parole of Honor. 

Persons proved to be guilty of taking up arms after having been set at 
liberty on parole of honor, or after the same to have taken any active 
part with or for the enemy, direct or indirect, shall be put to death, and 
their entire property confiscated. 

Articles 39, 40, and 41, require all to labor for the general good, and 
prohibit immoral actions. 
Art. 42. The Marriage Relation — Schools — The Sahhalh. 

Marriage relations shall be at all times respected, and families shall be 
kept togethar as far as possible, and broken families encouraged to reunite, 
and intelligence offices shall be established for that purpose. Schools and 
churches shall be established as may be, for the purpose of jreligious and 
other instruction, and the first day of the week shall be regarded as a day 
of rest and appropriated to moral and religious instruction and improve- 
ment to the relief of the suffering, the instruction of the young and 
ignorant, and the encouragement of personal cleanliness, nor shall any 
person on that day be required to perform ordinary manual labor, unless 
in extremely urgent cases. 
Art. 43. To Carry Arms Ojpenly. 

All persons known to be of good character, and of sound mind, and 
suitable age, who are connected with this organization, whether male or 
female, shall be encouraged to carry arms openly. 
Art. 44. No Person to Carry Concealed Weapons. 

No person within the limits of conquered territory, except regularly 
appointed policemen, express officers of army, mail carriers, or other fully 
accredited messengers of Congress, the President, Vice-President, mem- 
bers of the Supreme Court, or commissioned officers of the Army, and 
those nnder peculiar circumstances, shall be allowed at any time to carry 
concealed weapons ; and any person not specially authorized so to do who 
shall be found so doing, shall be deemed a suspicious person, and may at 
once be arrested by any officer, soldier, or citizen, without the formality 
of a complaint or warrant ; and may at once be subjected to thorough 
search, and shall have his or her case thoroughly investigated, and be 
dealt with as circumstances on proof shall require. 



46 John Brown. 

Art. 46, T'crsons to be Seized. 

Persons living within the limits of t'erritory 1-oldeu by this organiza- 
tion, and not connected with this organization, having arms at all, con- 
cealed or otherwise, shall be seized at once, or be taken in charge of by 
some vigilant officer, and their case thoroughly investigated ; and it shall 
be the duty of all citizens and soldiers, as well as officers, to arrest such 
parties as are named in this and the preceding section or article, without 
formality of complaint or warrant ; and they shall be placed in charge of 
some proper officer for examination, or for safe keeping. 

Art. 46. These Articles not for the Overthrow of GovernmenL 

The foregoing articles shall not be construed so as in any way to eucoDr- 
age the overthrow of any State Gorernment or of the General Gorera- 
ment of the United States, and look to no dissolution of the Union, but 
simply to amendment and repeal, and our flag shall be the same that our 
fathers fought under in the Revolution. 

Art. 47. No Plurality of Offices. 

No two offices specially provided for by this instrument shall be filled 
by the same person, at the same time. 
Art. 48. Oath. 

Every officer, civil or military, connected with this organization, shall, 
before entering upon the duties of office, make a solemn oath or affirmation 
to abide by and support the Provisional Constitution and these ordinances. 
Also, every citizen and soldier, beiure being recognised as such, shall do' 
the same. 

Schedule. 

The President of this Convention shall convene, immediately on tbe- 
adoption of this instrument, a Convention of all such persons as shall have 
given their adherence, by signature to the Constitution, who shall proceed 
to fill by election all offices specij:i!y named in said Constitution — the Pesi* 
dent of this Convention presiding and issuing commissions to such officere- 
elect. All such officers being hereafter elected in the manner provided in 
the body of this instrumeRt. 



THE KANSA.S COMMISSION. 

[From tho Washington Union.] 

On Friday the minority report of Mr. Oliver will be presented to the 
House. It is frequently asked " Why the committee did not agree ? 
Is not Mr. Oliver's secession a captious movement ?" The answer is., 
that it was not captious, and that Mr. Oliver was compelled to secede 
from the committee, so far as to make a minority report. The ap- 
pointment of one Southern man could have resulted in no good, except 



John Brown 4T 

he were permitted to make a report differing from that agreed on by 
the majority- From the beginning, the majority of the committee act- 
ed without reference to the minority ; they treated him as a cipher. If 
they made an agreement, it was cither not noticed, or directly violated. 
Thus, it was agreed that they should first meet at Leavenworth city ; 
to that place Mr. Oliver went, but Messrs. Howard and Sherman stop- 
ped at Kansas city, and instead of going to Leavenworth, as agreed 
upon, they repaired to Lawrence. Mr. Oliver had to learn of the 
movements of the majority as best he could, and follow them up from 
place to place. There should have been no session held in Lawrence, 
and the fact that there was one held there is proof enough that no regard 
was paid to the feelings of the minority. Gen. Whitfield and his friend . 
It was notorious that no one friendly to the pro-slavery party could be 
free from insult or disturbance of some kind in Lawrence. 

Again : the majority of the committee agreed to adopt Greenleaf on Ev- 
idence as a guide in taking testimony, yet when the rules of Greenleaf did 
not suit their side of the question they violated the agreement bjeschew- 
ing the rules there laid down. General Whitfield'scounsel endeavored, by 
applying those rules, to reject hearsay testimony as to the voting done 
by residents of Missouri ; the majority overruled the counsel, and dis- 
regarded their own bargain. 

The prominent reasons why Mr. Oliver could not unite with the ma- 
jority in their report are these: First, the majority excluded from their 
report everything but what was prejudicial to the pro-slavery or law- 
and-order party, and favorable to the abolition or rebel party. 
The testimony, which was only hearsay, shows that some Mis- 
feourians voted, but that in the majority of districts the bona fide 
pro-slavery settlers had an actual majority. This being the fact — 
which the majority perversely overlooked, or purposely disregarded — 
the legislature which passed the law under which J. W. Whitfield was 
elected was a valid body, and Gen. Whitfield is the legal representative 
of Kansas in the House. The majority reported that the legislature 
was an invalid body, and that Whitfield is not, therefore, a lawful repre- 
sentative — conclusions which the facts did not warrant the majority in 
coming to, and which it would not be expected that Mr. Oliver would 
concur in. 

During the investigation, testimony in relation to the tarring and fea- 
thering of Pardee Butler, and other violence alleged to have been com- 
mitted by the pro-slavery party, was admitted to record by the majority; 
these things having occurred after the committee were appointed. Af- 
terwards, when General Whitfield tried to introduce testimony as to out- 
rages on the part of the free-State party, unfavorable to them, the ma- 
jority refused to admit it, on the ground, as they say in their report, 
that it was not " ivithin their power or duty to take testimony as to 
events which transpired after the date of their appointment.^^ They 
had, however, taken testimony as to events which had transpired after 
their appointment, and this sudden conclusion was about to involve them 
into an inextricable dilemma. "How are we to get out of this dilem' 
ma, and make a show of ooneietency ?" was the queetion they put to 



48 John Brown. 

themselves. It was answered, " By expunging the testimony as to t 
Pardee Butler and other outrages." They reasoned in this sort of way : 
" Pardee Butler's case is a great outrage, but then the Pottawatomie 
Creek murders are much greater. If we let Butler's testimony stand, 
we shall have to admit testimony about those murders done by our party 
and we shall get the worst of it." 

Mr. Oliver will submit, along with his report, evidence of the massacre 
of five pro-slavery people on Pottawatomie creek, namely ; Allen \yil- 
kinson, Wm. Sherman, W. P. Doyle and two sons, whose lives were taken 
by abolitionists merely because they entertained pro-slavery sentiments, 
and acted with the pro-slavery party — murders committed under circum- 
stances of cruelty, a parallel to which can only be found in the annals of 
uncivilized savages. 

Secondly. The committee were reckless in their statements. One 
instance of their recklessness is in the declaration that Captain Pate's 
party, who were attacked and overpowered by the very men who were 
engaged in the Pottawatomie Creek murders, consisted " chiefly of cit- 
izens of Missouri." Since the report of the majority wag submitted to 
the House, Mr. Olliver caused evidence to be taken before the committee 
which proves that there was not one single bonajide citizen of Missouri 
in that party. 

Jt is not reasonable to expect Mr. Oliver to agree to a report which 
disregarded facts showing the contrary of what it contained, and present- 
ed to the House and to the public matters for the truth of which there is 
not a shadow of authority. 

The committee referred to the fact that Gen. Whitfield went to the 
Territory, as it is said, " with an invading army," I beg to say a word 
or two as to this. Many of the party who were taken prisoners had 
warm friends in Missouri, and some of them relatives. They heard that 
the party were in the power of murderers and cut-throats, and the com- 
mon instincts of human nature prompted them to go to the rescue of 
their friends and relatives. They did not know but that one hour of de- 
lay would make it too late, and they hurried to the rescue. Gen. Whit- 
field went along. Had it been necessary to fight in order to release the 
imprisoned party, no doubt Gen. Whitfield would have been in the 
fight ; but I believe that he accompanied the Missourians no less to 
caution to moderation and prevent violence tnan to relieve the impris- 
oned. Alleged acts of violence are charged upon Gen. Whitefield. If 
any were committed — and none were, so far as I know — they are no more 
attributable to him than to President Pierce, Mr. Speaker Banks, or the 
man in the moon. As soon as the party were released, General W. re- 
turned to Westport, and was in attendance on the congressional committee 
when the acts of violence charged upon him are said to have been done. 
Under the circumstances, humanity, the instincts of friendship, and the 
desire to prevent a terrible calamity, lei Gen. Whitfield into Kansas. 
If I know him, under like circumstances the same attributes of his gen- 
erous nature would lead him there again, no matter if it cost him the 
value of three-score sjats in Congress. 

WASHmaiON, July 9, 1856. 



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